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There's an enticing array of international fare to watch out for at the New Zealand International Film Festival, says artistic director Paolo Bertolin.
The festival kicks off at the end of this month, with 105 local and international films on offer.
Bertolin joined the festival as artistic director earlier this year and has worked on many other festivals, including Cannes Critics' Week and the Venice International Film Festival.
This year two big ticket films open the festival, both New Zealand films representative of a “surge in vitality in local cinema”, he told Simon Morris.
“On the one hand, we have We Were Dangerous. The film is directed by Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu. And it was awarded in South by Southwest and we're very proud to show the film in its domestic premiere.”
It's a story of female empowerment set in the 1950s, he said.
“It's an entertaining film and it's an empowering one. I think that by the end of the film, audiences will be really happy and excited. It's a film that really entertaining and pleasing and I feel the ending is very, very inspiring.”
Christchurch gets its own premiere with Jonathan Ogilvie’s Head South, he said.
"It's a film I have a kind of an interest in because I was in Christchurch at that time working on a rock show. And so that early 80s post punk thing is quite close to my heart.
“Head South is another wonderful example of this renaissance of local films. This is a film set at the end of the ‘70s, early ‘80s. And it's tracking the real story of a boy who is growing up in Christchurch at that time and feeling that rock music can be something that can change his life,” Bertolin said.
There’s a strong collection of New Zealand films in the festival, particularly some notable documentaries, he said. They include Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara, The House Within documentary film on New Zealand writer Fiona Kidman, Taki Rua Theatre – Breaking Barriers, and Never Look Away a documentary on photojournalist Margaret Moth.
“As a foreigner these documentaries were all extremely inspiring. They personally brought me into the reality of what arts is in New Zealand, and in particular, Taki Rua by Whetū Fala and Alien Weaponry because these two films are very much imbued with the question of the Māori identity, and the Māori language, even though they are set in two different artistic milieu.”
Sixteen films come from the Cannes festival this year, the festival closer is The Substance, he said.
“I am especially proud of the fact that the closing film is Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance. It's a genre film, but a very special one, because it's not what you would expect. It's a really exciting ride, which features Demi Moore in the role of an ageing actress who doesn't want to lose her position, and so starts using a strange substance as the title suggests, to become an alter ego and this dangerous game becomes more and more dangerous for her and for her doppelganger.”
It will be an unusual closing film, he said.
“I'm telling audiences to be prepared because it's going to be a very wild ride.”
Another highlight from Cannes is All We Imagine as Light, the first Indian film in competition at Cannes for years.
“The last one was in 1984. It's very exciting because Payal Kapadia was the first woman from India to direct the film in the Cannes competition, and she nearly got the Palme d'Or, she got the Grand Prix second prize in Cannes. It's a very delicate and sincere portrayal of female characters on the backdrop of a big city.”
One of the most controversial films at Cannes, screening here, was an Iranian film The Seed of the Sacred Fig.
“I was really happy that this is one of the very first films we secured from Cannes. This was a film we wanted to play at the festival.”
It’s a film about the recent feminists' protests in Iran but from the point of view of the police, he said.
“I have to say that it's a very, very powerful film. Of course, this is a film that will not be shown in Iran, the director Mohammad Rasoulof was himself condemned to eight years in prison and flogging, but he managed to escape and now he is applying for refugee status in Germany.”
The retro section of the festival has Terrence Malick's classic Days of Heaven, in restored 4k glory, he said.
Another film with majestic landscapes of at the festival is Wim Wenders 1984 classic, Paris, Texas.
Wim Wenders Palm d'Or winner from 1984 is indeed another great classic of arthouse cinema.
Highlight of the retro section is a 30th anniversary special screening of Heavenly Creatures, he said.
“This was a special event that has been approved by Peter Jackson himself. We are presenting it on the same night in Wellington and Auckland on August the 12th. And we are celebrating that also as an example of the historical commitment of the festival towards New Zealand cinema.
“The film had its world premiere in Wellington, at the festival back in 1994. And it's coming back in this new copy 30 years later.”
A personal fest pick of Bertolin is an animated film from Latvia.
“It's made by a very young filmmaker called Gints Zilbalodis, who will also be at the festival and who will be holding a couple of master classes, one in Wellington and one in Auckland."
His film Flow is a story of a cat who gets stranded on a boat with other animals during a huge flood that is submerging the whole world. It's kind of a new story of Noah's Ark but told in a way that is very contemporary in the sense that it feels like a film that talks about these times of division.
Flow was a big hit a Cannes, he said.
“Flow is a very good example of what the festival is trying to do, present works that are really universal and can speak to everyone in a very beautiful way.”
